Mound Key, Lee County, FL 2011

Looking back from the summit

EYE

The eye was a potent locus for Florida’s early peoples, one reason carved images of birds—with their prominent side-set eyes—were so common.

The Calusa believed the essential soul resided there, in the pupil. When their warriors gave the invader Ponce de León his mortal wound, by one account, it was with an arrow to the eye.

Next: Crystal River Archaeological State Park, Citrus County, FL 2008